1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a rear door openably and closably provided at a rear opening portion of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In hatchback type vehicles or the like, an opening portion is provided at a rear portion of a vehicle body, at which a rear door is openably and closably provided. The rear door is generally provided with a frame portion to which a rear glass is attached. In addition, the center portion of the lower hem of the frame portion is provided with a wiper device that wipes the surface of the rear glass.
Since a wiper blade of the wiper device is driven by a motor to be controlled to rotate to the left and the right, a large reaction force acts on the driving unit that controls the wiper blade. In addition, due to the heavy weight of the wiper device, the inertia load acts on a portion where the wiper device is attached, when opening and closing the rear door. In view of the issues above, a structure with high rigidity for supporting the driving unit is proposed (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2007-237947).
In the rear door structure described in the patent document above, there is provided a lateral beam having a closed cross section, which connects both lateral side portions of the frame portion. A driving unit of a wiper device is attached so as to straddle substantially a center portion of the lateral beam in a vehicle width direction and a door panel.
The conventional rear door structure described above can be employed in a vehicle having a sufficient space for installation of a wiper device at substantially a center portion in the vehicle width direction. However, in a vehicle in which a wiper device is disposed at the lower edge of the lateral portion of the rear glass from the perspective of securing rearward visibility, it is hard to secure a space for installation of such a driving unit.
In view of the above-described circumstances, the present invention has an object of providing a rear door structure which can install a driving unit of a wiper device in a lower end region of a lateral portion of a rear glass with high space efficiency and high rigidity.